5 Benefits of Being Vegan

Hi everyone! I’m going to write a short article on why people become vegan which some of you may find useful if it’s something you’ve considered. So to start off…

Being vegan – what is it?

A vegan lifestyle basically is a diet consisting of raw plant based food with no animal products at all. That means no fish, eggs, meat, honey or milk. The idea behind this is to live a healthy life without having to exploit any animals. Because of this, most vegans also avoid other animal products such as fur, leather and wool clothing as well as any other products that may exploit animals.

Being vegan – why bother?

1Your health

A vegan diet consists of nutrient-rich plant based-food and meets all your nutritional needs. It is made up of a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains and contains far less bad fats and cholesterol than a standard meat diet. Because of the amount of plant-based food in the diet you are getting yourself loads of fiber, antioxidants and vitamins and reducing the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and a number of cancers. A vegan diet can benefit anyone at any stage in their life.

2Think of the animals

Many people decide to become vegan do so because it is more compassionate towards animals. All over the world animals are being exploited and living terrible lives just to provide us with meat and other animal products. We as humans do not need animal products to survive, there are plenty of other ways to feed and clothe ourselves.

Lately there has been a lot more attention given to the conditions at factory farms showing the public how these animals are treated and what they have to endure. Highly intelligent animals such as pigs are often jammed into tiny pens and live their lives unable to move freely, while living in their own filth. Other animals such as cows and chickens often develop serious health issues after being selectively bred and loaded with hormones to make them produce milk and eggs at a faster, more profitable rate.

Becoming a vegan can be a good way to show your compassion towards these animals.

3Think of the environment

Each person who becomes a vegan can individually lower the footprint they leave on our environment. Many environmental issues seem too big for an individual to do anything about, but studies have shown that a vegan diet produces 1.5 tonnes less carbon dioxide than the average U.S. meat-based diet. In fact this may shock you – the live animal stock industry contributes to 18% of the total global greenhouse emissions, which is more than ALL transport emissions including aircraft (contributes 13.5%).

Plant-based diets such as a vegan diet not only have far lower carbon emissions, but also require around one third the water and land used to produce the average western diet. When farming livestock, each animal will consume more water and more food than it produces. We feed these animals’ plant products, so to feed them we have to use more water and land for crops than would be necessary to feed people a plant-based diet. There’s no denying that water and farmable land are becoming more and scarcer, along with hunger and an ever increasing population, feeding humans a plant-based diet would be far more sustainable than wasting resources on farming animals.

There are various other problems that have occurred due the farming animals – deforestation, water pollution and land degradation.

4It’s yummy!

Countries all around the world have used plant-based diets since the beginning of time. There are numerous, delicious recipes that have developed from this. India has delicious vegetable curries, Turkey has hummus, Italy has pastas, and Mexico has beans and tortillas, and that’s just off the top of my head!

Don’t forget that becoming vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up the foods you love. There are vegan versions for most of your favorite dishes – Vegan pizza, sausage, casseroles and cakes. Vegan diets have really taken off lately so you also will have no problem finding vegan foods in stores and restaurants.

5Why not?

So now you’ve read the reasons, why not become vegan today? I guess the question now is why wouldn’t you become vegan? It is more compassionate to animals, better for the environment, has a wide range of health benefits and has versions of most of the food you love to eat now. I hope you enjoyed this short article and found it useful, thanks for reading!

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Hey there! My name is Brooke and welcome to my little blog. I love to share my ideas on nutrition, fitness, health and women’s weight loss. I hope you find these articles useful and feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions 🙂 Let’s get healthy together and enjoy life!